6 Diseases Your Lack Of Sleep Could Be Causing

Sleep isn’t just blissful, it’s necessary. While you sleep, your body is conducting countless activities, including growth and cell repair. It also works on restoring energy and nutrients to worn out muscles and tissues.

Sleep also balances out hormones and supports your immune system while working to supporting memory function.

That’s why poor sleep can leave you feeling not only groggy and cranky but also less focused and more forgetful.

Here are 6 conditions directly caused by too little sleep:

1Alzheimer’s

Since sleep is necessary to remove waste from tired brain cells as well as repair worn or damaged structures. If this isn’t done properly, cognitive decline, dementia, and other brain conditions may occur.

In fact, in 2013, researchers at Johns Hopkins University found that skipping out on sleep is one of the possible causes of Alzheimer’s disease.

The study followed 70 adults between the ages of 53 and 91. Participants who experienced poor sleep frequently were found to have higher quantities of beta-amyloid deposition in their brains on PET scans.

Since the compound is a marker for Alzheimer’s disease, researchers hypothesized that poor sleep prevented the brain from clearing up beta-amyloid “waste”, leading to a higher incidence of cerebral disease.